Ageing & Society is an interdisciplinary and international journal devoted to advancing the understanding of ageing and the circumstances of older people in their socio-economic and cultural contexts. Committed to publishing original and high-quality research papers that substantially contribute to ongoing debates in social gerontology. Ageing & Society welcomes submissions using different theoretical and methodological approaches as long as they aim to advance research, policy and practice and encourage the exchange of ideas across the broad audience of multidisciplinary academics and practitioners working in the field of ageing. Please note that due to the number of submissions we receive every year, we are unable to offer pre-screening services. We encourage you, however, to read the instructions to authors carefully.
Article Categories | Submission Requirements | Preparation of manuscript | Preparing your manuscript for peer review | Ethical considerations | Declaration of funding | Competing interests declaration | Citations of references | Tables and figures | Supplementary Materials | Preparing your documents for submission | Author affiliations | ORCID | Seeking permission to use copyrighted material
Article categories
Articles
Articles that report on empirical research in order to substantially contribute to ongoing debates in social gerontology must contain between 6,000 and 8,000 words (excl. the title page, abstract, keywords, reference list and any supplementary material). Most papers usually have the following sections in sequence:
- Title page
- Abstract
- Keywords
- Main text (which is often comprised of the following sections):
o Introduction
o Literature Review
o If applicable, Theoretical Framework
o Methods
o Results/ Findings
o Discussion/ Conclusion and
o If applicable, Implications for Policy and/or Practice
- Statement of ethical approval as appropriate
- Statement of funding
- Declaration of contribution of authors
- Statement of competing interest
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- References
- Supplementary material (where applicable) – this is not included in the word limit and will be published online only.
Authors have the flexibility to organise the main text of their manuscripts into the format that best suits the topic under consideration but all of the information alluded to above should be included. Please make note of the guidelines offered under the headings ‘Appropriateness for Ageing & Society’ and ‘Preparation of manuscript’ since they offer more detailed information about some of these sections. Note also that the Journal accepts manuscripts that rely on different methodological approaches, as well as conceptual and theoretical contributions. The later may be appropriate as Forum article submissions so consult that section below.
Review articles
Worth noting is also that Ageing & Society
Forum articles
In addition to research and review articles, we welcome critical/reflective commentaries on research, policy, theory or methods relevant to the Journal’s readers. These commentaries are not appropriate for the presentation of empirical research results even though they could be informed by the submitting authors’ previous research. Sometimes these articles reflect the viewpoint of the author(s) who have submitted the paper, while other times these are theoretical and/or conceptual contributions that aim to ignite ongoing debates in the field of social gerontology. Because of the critical/ reflective/ theoretical and/or conceptual nature of these submissions, it is important that authors take into account the opinions of scholars, practitioners and/ or policy makers that may disagree with the thesis/ viewpoint expressed in their Forum submissions. Please note also that Forum articles undergo the anonymous peer-review process just as all submissions to our journal do. Worth mentioning is that because our journal caters to an international audience, authors should not assume that the reader has the country-specific knowledge to fully understand the thesis/viewpoint expressed. There should therefore be enough background/ context information in a Forum manuscript to allow readers to understand why the commentary is necessary. Papers submitted for consideration as a forum article should contain 2,000-5,000 words (incl. abstracts and reference list).
Book review articles
The Journal welcomes also book reviews, which offer our readers an opportunity to become acquainted with recently published books in the field. Because the Journal’s aims, among others, to encourage the exchange of ideas across the broad audience of multidisciplinary academics and practitioners working in the field of ageing, it is important that book reviews are constructed with our readership in mind. Please note also that educators in the field of ageing tend to read book reviews when searching for potential contributions to their courses’ syllabus so authors for book reviews are encouraged to keep this in mind. Please make also note of the guidelines you will receive from our book review editors once you have committed yourself to reviewing a book for us.
Submission requirements
Exclusive submission to Ageing & Society
- Submission of the article to Ageing & Society is taken to imply that it has not been published elsewhere nor is it being considered for publication elsewhere. Authors are required to confirm on submitting their manuscript that it is not published, in press, or submitted elsewhere.
- If the submitted manuscript is based on a working paper (or similar draft document published either online or in print), the working paper should be acknowledged in the manuscript that the author is submitting to our journal. Submissions that are identical to a working paper or are similar to a document published online will not be accepted for publication in Ageing & Society.
Appropriateness for Ageing & Society
- All submissions must fall within the remit of the Journal, as described at the beginning of this document (i.e. the aims and scope).
- Authors should bear in mind that social gerontology is an interdisciplinary field so care must be taken to draw out the implications of the analysis for readers that may not share the disciplinary background of the author.
- The international nature of the readership of this Journal should also be kept in mind when crafting manuscripts for submission. Information on the country-specific-context upon which the study was designed may be needed for readers in other regions to appreciate the relevance of the work.
- The stereotypical presentation of individuals or social groupings, including the use of ageist language, must be avoided. Thus, for example, words such as elderly, elders, the aged should be avoided. Please consult the following guidelines if uncertain as to what constitutes ageist language:
o https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/ageing/quick-guide-to-avoid-ageism-in-communication
- All manuscripts must meet the submission requirements set out in this document, closely following the instructions in the ‘Preparation of manuscripts’, ‘Citation of references’ and ‘Table and Figures’ sections below.
Preparation of manuscript (incl. references and tables)
All contributions (articles and book reviews) should be written in British English, and typed double-spaced with at least one-inch or two-centimetre margins throughout (including notes and the list of references). Please consult the section entitled ‘Good written English’, as well as the heading ‘Submission of documents’ before finalizing your submission.
For insight into the sections that most research articles include see the section on ‘Article categories’. Below you will find detailed information that may be useful when preparing your manuscript.
The title page should give the title of the manuscript and the author(s)’ names, affiliations and postal and email addresses. Please consult the headings ‘Named authors’ and ‘ORCID’ for further information.
When composing the title of your manuscript, please consider that the title will be shortened to appear as a running head in the final version of the Journal if your paper ends up being accepted for publication. Please note that allusions to specific countries and regions in the title can sometimes diminish the chances of an article being deemed relevant to readers who are based in other countries/ regions. Think therefore carefully about whether the title needs to include a specific geographical allusion. Note also that the use of quotes (i.e. data extracts) in a title can compromise how easily searchable an article is in certain databases.
Understanding the reasons why abstracts are included with a submission, and how they are used by reviewers/scholars, is crucial to crafting abstracts that do justice to the manuscript submitted whilst also providing an essential service to the scientific community. Thus, we would like to alert you to the fact that abstracts are the only information about a paper that reviewers receive when we request a review from them. Abstracts are also used when searching databases and making the decision to download and read a paper. It is for these reasons that abstracts are not meant to present a summary of the manuscript submitted, but rather to offer a service to members of the scientific community who are looking for contributions to ongoing debates. The abstract may contain a maximum of 300 words, and must contain the following information: an allusion to the knowledge gap, research problem or practice/ policy challenge that the study addresses, a statement about the study’s aims, an allusion to the methods used (incl. sample size), a statement about the main results, as well as a statement about the contribution that the study makes to ongoing debates in social gerontology. In other words, a well-crafted abstract begins with a clear statement on the knowledge gap that the manuscript addresses and ends with a statement that spells out the type of contribution that the study makes to ongoing scholarly, practice and/or policy debates. The implications of the results for future research can be included in the final statement if applicable. Please note that abstracts should not include sub-headings, abbreviations that are undefined and references.
A well-crafted introduction conveys the reasons why a manuscript deserves the attention of the scientific community, and offers a hint to the type of contribution that a study makes. Thus, the introduction should not state matters that are obvious to this Journal’s primary audience. General statements on population ageing, for example, make often little sense to our readers unless the manuscript argues something specific about the impact of population aging on the topic that the paper addresses. Thus, when constructing the introduction, aim to offer the scientific community the backdrop that makes the knowledge gap being addressed interesting and/or worthy of their attention.
Literature reviews are the sections that highlight the knowledge gap that a manuscript addresses. This section is not therefore meant to offer detailed information on a few studies, but to give the reader an idea of what characterises research on the topic that the manuscript addresses, and the kind of questions that remain unanswered. This means that the angles used to construct a literature review are multiple. Some literature reviews focus on the inconsistent results of previous research, while others argue that there are specific groups of older people that have not received attention. There are also literature reviews that argue that ongoing debates have been stifled by the fact that certain methodologies have been used less often, or because previous research has been conducted in certain parts of the world, to name but a few. Irrespective of which angle the literature review section of your manuscript will utilise, please keep in mind that it is the exposure of a knowledge gap that is the main objective of the literature review section of a research article.
Manuscripts that include a theory section should not only spell out what the theory proposes, they should also give readers an idea of which topics have been approached through the theoretical lens employed. Please note also that manuscripts that include a theory section should also engage with the theory presented in either the results sections or the discussion/ conclusion sections.
Manuscripts that report on empirical findings must detail the research methodology that the study has relied on. This means that information on research questions, hypotheses (when applicable), sampling strategies (incl. representativeness when applicable), sample characteristics and size, data collection and analysis as well as validity and reliability (or the equivalent for qualitative methodology) should be included in the methods section. Statements about ethical considerations are also expected in the section that focuses on methodology. The latter is particularly relevant when the data that a manuscript is based on was collected without having secured ethical approval from an ethics board. See also information under heading ‘Ethical considerations’.
The results/ findings section of manuscripts submitted to this Journal can be constructed in several ways since we accept an array of methodological approaches, and these come with specific expectations as to how results/ findings should be presented. Manuscripts based on qualitative data, which sometimes rely on data extracts, should not end sections with a quote. In other words, the manuscript should interpret the data that it presents as opposed to leaving the analysis of data extracts to readers. Thus, the repetition of what the interview material utilized in the manuscript states should be avoided since this gives the impression that the analysis entails merely describing the data that has been collected, as opposed to analysing it and interpreting into a coherent message that can advance ongoing debates within social gerontology.
The discussion/ conclusion section should not only summarise the results presented (in the case of research articles) or the arguments conveyed (in the case of Forum articles). This section should spell out what the contributions of a paper are to ongoing debates in either research, policy and/or practice. In addition, the discussion should address the limitations that the methodological approach employed posed. Please note also that manuscripts need not include both a discussion and a conclusion section, which is why we write discussion/ conclusion. If the manuscript offers statements about the implications of the research presented for policy and practice, it is important to keep in mind the methodological limitations that sample size impose. Thus, authors are encouraged to remain cognizant that the robustness of the study design employed determines the cautiousness with which implications for policy or practice ought to be crafted.
Authors are asked to follow the current style conventions as closely as possible. Please consult a very recent issue of the journal. In particular, please note the following:
- Use the British variants of English-language spelling, so ‘ageing’, not ‘aging’.
- First level headers are in bold, sentence case and left justified
- Second level headers are in italic (not bold), sentence case and left justified
- Do not number paragraphs or sections. Avoid very short (particularly one sentence) paragraphs.
- Do not use bold text in the text at all. For emphasis, use italic.
- ·In the main text, the numbers one to ten should be written as words, but for higher numbers the numerals (e.g. 11, 23, 364) should be used. However, if numbers are used in the very beginning of a sentence they should always be written as words.
- All acronyms must be expanded on first use, even EU (European Union), USA (United States of America), UK (United Kingdom) or UN (United Nations), to ensure that the article can be easily understood by all readers
- Do not use footnotes. Endnotes are permitted for technical and information details (including arrays of test statistics) that distract from the main argument. Endnote superscripts should be placed outside, not inside a punctuation mark (so.3 not4.).
- Write per cent (not %) except in illustrative brackets.
Good written English is a requirement for acceptance in Ageing & Society
If you need additional support with your writing, we list a number of third-party services specialising in language editing and/or translation, and suggest that authors contact as appropriate:www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/language-services
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor is the author required to submit to a Cambridge University Press journal after using the service.
Specific instructions regarding how references should be formatted both in text and in the reference list can be found under the heading ‘Citation of references’.
Preparing your manuscript for peer review
- Because manuscripts that are deemed to meet the Journal’s aims and scope are subjected to the anonymous peer-review process, the corresponding author should prepare (a) a complete text and (b) complete text minus the title page, acknowledgements, and any running headers of author names, to allow anonymous review.
- References to papers of the authors must be anonymized in both the text, and the list of references, until the review process has been completed.
- Authors may be asked to submit a revised version of the original manuscript after the first round of the peer-review process has taken place. In any revised submission, we prefer you to indicate these revisions by using either the track changes function, or a different font colour to indicate where revisions have been made. If substantial revisions have been made, the use of a different font colour is preferred.
- When submitting a revised version of a manuscript do include an enclosed letter (or a table) outlining how you have addressed the reviewers’ comments, and stipulating which changes have been made. Comments on the advice that you have chosen not to accept should also be included in the accompanying letter/ table. The corresponding author should confirm that co-authors have agreed to any changes made.
Ethical considerations
- All papers must demonstrate that best practice and ethical standards have been met throughout the research design and execution, including adherence to the legal requirements of the author’s institution.
- For empirical work conducted with human participants, authors must provide evidence that the study was subject to the appropriate level of ethical review. Authors must, in other words, state the full name of the body providing the favourable ethical review and reference number as appropriate. If full ethical approval was not required by your institution, please state this.
- Irrespective of whether the study was subjected to the appropriate level of ethical review or not, authors must still outline the ethical considerations that are appropriate for the study, and how they ensured that best practice was followed. This could form part of the ethical statement or, if more detailed explanation is required, be included in the methods section of the paper. For guidance on the issues to consider please see: www.ukri.org/councils/esrc/guidance-for-applicants/research-ethics-guidance
- If a manuscript relies on secondary data that does not require ethical approval, this too should be stated at the appropriate point in the submission process.
Declaration of funding
A declaration of sources of funding must be provided if appropriate. Authors must state the full official name of the funding body and grant numbers specified. Authors must also specify what role, if any, their financial sponsors played in the design, execution, analysis and interpretation of data, or writing of the study. If they played no role, this too should be stated.
Competing interests declaration
All authors must include a competing interests declaration in their title page. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and will be published in the article. Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations. If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interests declarations relevant to all contributing authors. Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author A is employed at company B. Author C owns shares in company D, is on the Board of company E and is a member of organisation F. Author G has received grants from company H.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Citation of references
Ageing & Society uses an author-date system in which sources are cited parenthetically in text and full publication details appear in the reference list. The journal style seeks to use the minimum punctuation necessary.
In-text citation
Give the author's surname, date of publication and page references (if any) in parentheses in the body of the text, e.g. (Cole 1992) or (Cole 1992, 251). For references with two authors, both authors should be named (Green and Brown 2003). For references with three or more authors, the following form is required: (Brown et al 2003).To cite several authors in one place, and/or several references by the same author use:
(Ferraro 2018; Keating 2012, 2019; Schatz 2021)
Reference list
A complete list of references cited, arranged alphabetically by authors’ surname, should be typed double-spaced at the end of the article. Note that all authors must be named in the list of references, and et al is not permitted in the list. List two or more works by the same author or authors chronologically. To distinguish two or more works by the same author or authors in the same year, use a, b, c, etc. following the date, and list references in the order in which they are mentioned in the text.Note also that while the manuscript is undergoing the review process, references to authors’ work should remain anonymous. Thus, when such references are included in the original submission, list them as AUTHOR 1, 2010, AUTHOR 3, 2018 etc. Once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, we will request that these anonymized references be added.
The reference list should follow this form:
For books
Cole T (1992) The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ruth J-E and Oberg P (1996) Ways of life: old age in life history perspective. In Birren JE, Kenyon G, Ruth J-E, Schroots J F F and Svensson T (eds), Aging and Biography: Explorations in Adult Development. New York: Springer, 167-86.
For journal articles
It is not necessary to provide an issue number of journals paginated by volume:Smith K & Victor C (2019) Typologies of loneliness, living alone and social isolation, and their associations with physical and mental health. Ageing & Society 39, 1709-1730. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X18000132
Elder G H and Clipp E C (1988) Wartime losses and social bonding: influences across 40 years in men's lives. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes 51(2), 177-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1988.11024391
For online interviews or articles
Thompson D (2020) How long does COVID-19 immunity last? Atlantic, 20 July. Available at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/could-covid-19-immunity-really-disappearmonths/614377/ (accessed 20 July 2020).
Aung San Suu Kyi (2017) Interview by F Keane, 5 April 2017. BBC News. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/av/worldasia-39510271/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-exclusive-interview (accessed 20 July 2020).
For the reference list, please particularly note the following:
- Titles of Books and Journals are in Title Case and Italic.
- Titles of papers, articles and book chapters are in sentence case and not italicised.
- Do not elide page numbers when giving page ranges (thus, it should be 213-229 rather than 213-29).
- Authors are requested to minimise the citation of unpublished working and conference papers (because they are difficult for readers to acquire). Where they are cited, complete details of the title of the conference, the convening organisation, the location and the date of the presentation must be given.
- Papers that have been submitted to a journal but on which no decision has been heard must not be cited.
For full details of the Ageing & Society reference style, and more examples, please see Cambridge A in the reference style guide.
Tables and figures
There should never be more than ten tables and figures in aggregate, and only in exceptional circumstances more than eight. Please do not use Boxes or Appendices. Present all illustrative material as tables or figures. Please indicate in the text where approximately the Table and Figures should appear using the device < Insert Table 1 about here > on its own line.
Tables should be clearly laid out on separate pages, numbered consecutively, and designed to fit into a space of 184 x 114mm. Tables should have titles describing their content above the body of the table in sentence case.
Vertical lines between columns should be omitted and horizontal lines should be used only at the top and bottom of the table and below column headings. Totals and percentages should be labelled, and units identified. Authors are asked to give particular attention to the title and to column and row labels so that tables are comprehensible without reference to the text. Authors should avoid using figures with an excessive number of digits and rescale variables so that all figures in a table can be displayed with the same number of digits after decimal points, ideally nor more than 3. Use initial zeros, i.e., 0.300 rather than .300.
Technical or methodological details (such as sample size or type of statistic) should be described in the labels or in table notes. Within tables, references to notes should be indicated with superscript numerals. The explanations should be given in ‘Notes:’ under the body of the table, using a continuous paragraph.
‘Significance levels:’ and ‘Sources:’, where required, should be in paragraphs separate from the general notes, and have italicised opening headers.
Example table:
Figures should also be provided on separate pages, numbered consecutively and designed to fit a printed page of 228 x 152 mm (actual text area 184 x 114 mm). For each figure, the caption should be below and in sentence case. Separate lists of captions are not required. For figures generated by Excel, please send the original file (rather than an exported image) so that the figures can be copy-edited.
Figures should be provided in the following formats:- TIFF (.tif) is the recommended file format for line art, greyscale and colour halftone images. TIFF files should be compressed once created, ensuring file sizes are kept to a minimum to aid easy file transfer. When saving as TIFF format, please ensure that LZW compression is applied. Recommended for: all images
- EPS (.eps) For vector graphics, EPS files are the preferred format. An EPS file is an image that has been created using the language of PostScript, and is generally resolution independent. Recommended for: line and combination artwork
- PDF (.pdf) This format is very similar to EPS. Before saving an image as a PDF it is important to make sure that the fonts are embedded and that the original images are at the correct size and resolution. To check this visually you can zoom in when viewing the PDF on screen.
For further information about how to prepare your figures, including sizing and resolution requirements, please see our artwork guide.
Colour figures can be submitted to Ageing & Society, but charges apply for all colour figures that appear in the print version of the journal. At the time of submission, contributors should clearly state whether their figures should appear in colour in the online version only, or whether they should appear in colour online and in the print version. There is no charge for including colour figures in the online version but you should ensure that any colour figures are still legible when produced in grayscale for the printed version. If you request colour figures in the printed version, you will be contacted by CCC-Rightslink who are acting on our behalf to collect Author Charges. Please follow their instructions in order to avoid any delay in the publication of your article.
Supplementary materials
Authors are encouraged to publish supplementary material online wherever it serves to enhance the argument or otherwise enrich an article. This could include, but will not necessarily be limited to anonymised data, slides, large images, videos, and audio files. A full set of file specifications and instructions concerning supplementary material of this kind can be found here.
Each supplementary file must be supplied as a separate file. Do not supply this material as part of the main body of the article. All supplementary material should be submitted with the original manuscript submission so that they can be considered as part of the peer review process.
Please note that if the article is accepted, Supplementary materials are not edited or typeset, and are published online with the full article in exactly the format supplied by the authors.
Preparing your documents for submission
All submissions should include:
- A copy of the complete text of the manuscript, with a title page including the title of the article and the author(s)’ names, affiliations and postal and email addresses, and competing interests declaration (see below for guidance on what this should look like).
- A copy of the complete text minus the title page, acknowledgements, any running headers of author names and blinded references to authors’ previous work, to allow for anonymous peer-review.
- Papers with more than one author must designate a corresponding author. The corresponding author should be the person with full responsibility for the work and/or the conduct of the study, had access to the data, and controlled the decision to publish. The corresponding author must confirm that co-authors have read the paper and are aware of its submission. Full contact details for all co-authors should be submitted via Manuscript Central.
- You must ensure that you have included all authors and provided their correct information before submission. We may not be able to accommodate changes to the author list after the manuscript has been accepted.
- All named authors for an article must have made a substantial contribution to: (a) the conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of data; (b) the drafting of the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content and (c) approval of the version to be published. All these conditions must all be met. Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data does not, of itself, justify authorship. On submission, the Corresponding Author must declare that they have the authority of all co-authors for the submission.
Named authors
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
ORCID
Ageing & Society now requires that all corresponding authors identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to the journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration in key research workflows such as publication and grant applications, provides the following benefits:
1. Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you’ve authored.
2. Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your ID or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID profile (if you give permission), and will save you re-keying information multiple times.
3. Keeping track: Your ORCID profile is a neat place to record and display (if you choose) validated information about your research activities.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID, you will need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to Ageing & Society. You can register for one directly from your account on ScholarOne or via https://ORCID.org/register If you already have an ID, please use this when submitting by linking it to your ScholarOne user account. Simply log in to your account using your normal username and password. Edit your account by clicking on your name at the top right of the screen and from the dropdown menu, select 'E-Mail / Name'. Follow the instructions at the top of the screen to update your account. For more information about why we are making this change please see https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/journals/using-orcid.
Seeking permission to use copyrighted material
If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance. For more information, please see our guidance on copyrighted material.